Which is better?

Most visitors from Japan are surprised at the Skytrain ticket system in Vancouver because there are no ticket checking gate in stations and they seem to get on the trains for free. Of course they are not free and they have to pay hundreds of bucks as a penalty if they didn't have an effective ticket when checked by the train officer. On the other hand in Japan, it is almost a commonsense to buy a ticket every time we get on a train and it is always checked when both entering and exiting the station. Ticket checking used to be a train officer's job decades ago, but now an automatic ticket gate system is widely used all over the county. I read a news that a new common ticket system called PASMO started in Tokyo a few weeks ago. Surprisingly in the system, we can use any buses, subways and trains in Tokyo with only one card ticket with wireless communication function. When a passenger with the card go through a ticket gate in a station, a wireless communication between the card in the passenger's purse and the gate system automatically created and required fare is subtracted from the card account. It looks great and cheating on train fare can be stamped out, but in my opinion, the Skytrain system in Vancouver is way better or more elegant. How much did it cost to develop and run the intelligent ticket system in Japan? Which system is more smooth for passengers to get in a train? What happens in case of a blackout or a radio wave interference? I think the simpler is the better if the result is almost the same. I heard that the new system has already faced some problems; the wireless cards have almost ran out of stock and a passenger with two cards is denied at the ticket gate.

Comments

[PasmoRider]

train fare cheats in japan will never be stamped out. i got from osaka to tokyo for free thanks to my pasmo. and you can fit more than one person through the gate with one pasmo. HAHAHAHA